Erik Estavillo has outdone himself once again, this time subpoenaing a pair of rappers to testify at his civil lawsuit against Sony Computer Entertainment America over his banning from the PlayStation Network.

Those to be summoned are Louise Amanda Harman, better known as Lady Sovereign (pictured left), and Anthony Henderson (aka Krayzie Bone) of the group Bone, Thugs & Harmony. The pair were subpoenaed because Estavillo desires to, “highlight how rappers are not censored/banned/or punished for ‘cussing/trash talking’ on private property i.e. clubs, concerts, music channels/events or award ceremonies.”

It amazes me this guy thinks he knows law so well. I looked at his appeal brief he submitted to the Ninth Circuit for the Sony case on the PACER system. I about died laughing!! I'm not sure if he is calling these people in as witnesses for the federal appeals suit or the state court suit. Either way, I don't believe any of these witnesses will ever meet Mr. Estavillo.

No wonder most judges have a bias against pro se litigants. Now, if you want to read about an interesting lawsuit against a big company filed by a pro se litigant Google Riggs v. MySpace. That case has far more merit about a deleted account that should not have happened. Not to mention, MySpace could be on the hook for $40 million for stealing the idea for MySpace Celebrity.

His lawsuits are nothing compared to the stakes in that case. She really is trying to help members and never sought out the media attention of this guy.

The ONLY reason why rappers are able to curse and say what they like during concerts, in clubs, and what not is because those venues LET THEM! The owners of those venues are under absolutely no legal obligation to give those rappers the stage or even let them in the door. If the rapper does something that the venue does not like then they can toss them out on their asses (except ofcourse, they signed a contract stating otherwise). And hell, this kid is not even the rapper on stage, he's the dick-headed drunk at the bar... and if the bar owner don't like his attitude, he will cut him off and then throw him out

According to one of his interviews, he's on disability and receives about $800 / month from the state. California will waive any legal fees for filing lawsuits if you're under X amount of income and fill out the appropriate form, so these suits aren't costing him any money.

At the end of the day, performers have to go with whatever has been worked out in their agreement with whatever venue they're at. If that means that the concert is going to be 21 and over because the venue's had problems with underage drinking, that's what's going to happen. If that agreement says that the rappers cannot swear, or need to censor their music a bit, that's what's going to happen, or the venue will take action against them. As a PRIVATE venue, they reserve the right to do basically whatever the hell they want within the confines of the law.

As for swearing on 'music channels', MTV, long believed by idiots and children to be the edgiest TV channel, still won't allow goddamn, fuck, and many other slurs. Just because sometimes MTV doesn't censor out the word 'nigga' does not mean they're not censoring out words like 'fuck' and 'nigger'. The same goes for radio stations, which often air edited versions of songs (and if you'd like to hear those versions for yourself, just google radio edit or go to WalMart and buy the songs on CD there).

These are all private entities that can censor whatever they wish.

Besides, I would liken what Erik did to being more along the lines of going into a family restaurant (Applebees, Outback Steakhouse, TGIFridays, something in that vein) and swearing and spouting racial slurs repeatedly. They don't have to let you stay there if you're going to act in such a manner.

Your understanding is false. Out of the kerfluffle following Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" obscenity can now incur up to a $500k fine for EACH INSTANCE on radio or TV. In the case of a network the fine can go out to EACH STATION, so if you get an F-Bomb on an NBC program that airs on 100 stations, the money can get thick rather quickly.

Also, stations can not just readily "move to XM." Personalities can be hired by Sirius/XM (i.e. Howard Stern) but stations can not just wholesale make the leap to satellite.

The only legal obligation clubs, bars, and similar businesses have in providing entertainment is to provide a music license (ie from ASCAP) in the case of having proof that they are allowed to play copyrighted music in a public setting. This only deals with the case of playing music by other people when those said people aren't the actual performers. You are correct in that the censorship/content rules are left to the the business owners.

Really though, what part of this whole thing has been all that sensible? It's been wave after wave of crushing stupidity and insanity.

Honestly, this is reading less like a list of witnesses subpoenaed with a purpose and more like a list of people that Erik has always wanted to meet. And I honestly hope they all hate him for wasting their time.

I wholeheartedly agree. I don't believe for a damn minute the reason he gave for any of the subpoenas. It's such a flimsy premise, and so poorly disguised.

It seems like a wish list of people he wants to meet (and a hilarious list at that. Depeche Mode's founder? WINONA RYDER? It's a bit of an eclectic list to say the least), not a list of people who are invaluable witnesses to his hardships and whatnot.

The pair were subpoenaed because Estavillo desires to, “highlight how rappers are not censored/banned/or punished for ‘cussing/trash talking’ on private property i.e. clubs, concerts, music channels/events or award ceremonies.”

They certainly can be. And have. Look what a five second search turned up:

He forgets that the clubs, whilst they may not choose to throw out rappers for 'offensive lyrics' etc, are perfectly within their rights to do so as long as the club being performed in is a private one, they choose not to because they wouldn't make much income if they threw out every musician who swore, and because, in part, people go there expecting such language use. An online community, in retrospect, has to deal with such behaviour, but people shouldn't have to 'expect' having expletives hurled at them in the course of a game, and, being a private forum, the management reserve the right to eject those who are being deliberately distruptive, which is more or less the rules you will see in any nightclub.

The mistake Estavillo makes is assuming that he is somehow the 'headline act', much as the performers at a club, and not one of the audience.

Edit: Besides, considering the amount of times bands have been reprimanded or attacked for 'offensive lyrics', with some venues refusing to host certain acts for that reason, this seems to be a case of shooting himself in the foot.

How can you be so sure about this, i mean how is it possible that what if someone promised to do something and later does not stick to it. Wrong assumption.____________________________________________________________presentation folder | presentation folders

Daniel Lewis: The only thing said i disagree with is the final quote on Men's experiences are seen to be universal but women are gendered,though doesn't anita say that games with male protagonists are male power fantasies,so in turn both are gendered03/31/2015 - 1:08pm

Daniel Lewis: i found the video to be much better than any of the TvW series and it's about time the positive women are put in the spotlight03/31/2015 - 1:06pm

Daniel Lewis: So feministfrequency released a positive female character video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXmj2yJNUmQ03/31/2015 - 1:05pm

Daniel Lewis: I think the guy who made the direct leak said it was an april fools joke when a real one was announced03/31/2015 - 12:43pm

MaskedPixelante: No way Nintendo would let information like that get out. Remember, they shut down a memoir about the localization of Earthbound by enforcing a 20 year old NDA on the author.03/31/2015 - 12:42pm

james_fudge: Conster: the larger issue is that Ind. does not protect LGBTQ+ people under state law03/31/2015 - 12:11pm

PHX Corp: @MP I think it is confirmed(not an April Fools joke) http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/31/nintendo-direct-confirmed-for-wednesday-april-1st/03/31/2015 - 12:00pm

Conster: Apparently Pence intends to amend SB101 so denying service isn't allowed - without explicitly protecting LGBT+ and while still allowing the many other things you can get away with now if it's motivated by your religious beliefs.03/31/2015 - 11:53am

MaskedPixelante: http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/30/rumour-nintendo-direct-on-april-1st/ A supposed full leak of tomorrow's Nintendo Direct, so you can all laugh and laugh about how wrong it is.03/31/2015 - 11:35am

PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/why-a-tekken-7-character-is-being-called-a-phoney-1694724959 Why a Tekken 7 Character Is Being Called a Phoney03/31/2015 - 10:08am

Michael Chandra: Argh. Anyway, I'm glad that move was made. Wonder if it counts, can he just declare it like that? 03/31/2015 - 9:27am

Zen: Conster - Good, it's a BS law that exists to just allow hate basically. Glad people are standing up to it. Sadly it should never have passed to begin with though.03/31/2015 - 8:39am

Zen: Nintendo Direct tomorrow it seems. Funny it will be on April 1st lol. http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/03/31/nintendo-direct-announced-for-tomorrow03/31/2015 - 8:38am

MaskedPixelante: http://www.destructoid.com/chris-charla-would-love-to-see-no-man-s-sky-on-xbox-one-289761.phtml Apparently Microsoft's famous "parity clause" doesn't apply if they thing your game will make them tons of money.03/31/2015 - 8:00am

Conster: Basically, he's claiming there's a state statute that allows him to invoke section 2 of SB101 and be exempt from it.03/31/2015 - 5:48am

Conster: "..military service veteran status, and any breach of this policy shall continue to be considered a material breach of the relationship with the City."03/31/2015 - 5:09am